Marathon Man

To many of us, there are few things scarier than Nazis. And to even more of us, there are few things scarier than dentists. Marathon Man presents a man who is a Nazi dentist, and played by the great Laurence Olivier. Does it get any more terrifying? It's hard to imagine a character more frightening.

Marathon Man stars Dustin Hoffman as Thomas "Babe" Levy, a graduate history student just trying to make his way through graduate school, who is obsessed with running. He is unwillingly brought into a dangerous situation involving stolen diamonds when he finds his secret agent brother Doc (Roy Scheider) stabbed. Henry dies, and Christian Szell (Olivier), who Doc was doing business with, thinks Babe might know something about the diamonds, and he and his band of thugs hunt down Babe and attempt to extract the truth from him. Also involved in the story is Peter Janeway, another agent who was an associate of Doc and tries to help Babe, and Elsa Opel, who is Babe's mysterious love interest. The plot is filled with double-crosses and the audience isn't quite sure who is on who's side until the latter parts of the film.

John Schlesinger, the man who brought us the good but overrated Midnight Cowboy, directs. His direction is much better here, 7 years later. The movie is filled with scenes of almost unbearable intensity, in which the viewer knows something bad is going to happen, but the tension builds to an agonizing point as Schlesinger shows little mercy. There is a terrifying torture scene in which Szell gives Babe a nightmarish dental exam. We see the various instruments laid out on the table, and we know something horrible is going to happen to Babe. But first, Szell converses politely with Babe, and prolongs what we all know is coming, and we don't know if we'll ever be ready for it. Another scene of incredible intensity is when Szell's thugs break into Babe's apartment, and we know Babe has no chance for escape, and yet we watch the whole scene unfold slowly, as the sinking feeling begins to take over our gut.

Marathon Man is a unique story of a normal man brought into incredibly dangerous circumstances, not by any fault of his own. He is merely brought into the situation because of his brother's work. Babe seems like someone we know, and we feel like it could happen to anyone, despite the situation being extremely unusual. Hoffman creates a very sympathetic character, someone we identify with and are horrified by the things that happen to him. We want him to escape, we want him to fight back. Olivier's Szell is a perfect foil, as he is a completely unlikable character. He is a Nazi who only cares about himself, who is willing to kill and torture to get what he wants. Olivier is at his most menacing, it is actually somewhat of a shocking role for Olivier, who usually plays less extreme characters. It is a brilliant clash of styles as the older, classically-trained Olivier squares off against the method acting of Hoffman. The performances of these two and their interactions on screen are what makes this movie.

Marathon Man is not without its problems. It is an extremely effective thriller, but besides Babe and Szell, the supporting characters are somewhat weak. We are never completely sure about the character of Doc, as he is not fleshed out. Elsa's motivations are unclear, we don't see enough of her to get a sense of why she makes the choice she does at the end. Peter Janeway is a very generic character as well, who we've seen before hundreds of times.

Despite its flaws, Marathon Man accomplishes its goals. It wants to keep you guessing, and wants to keep you on the edge of your seat. It accomplishes those for certain. Olivier and Hoffman's performances are enough to carry the film, despite the weak supporting characters. Schlesinger's methodical approach to the more intense scenes works very well, as the tension builds to an almost unbearable level at times, which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. Marathon Man is far from perfect, but is undoubtedly very effective.

Rating: 8.5/10